I have waited awhile to write this post because I wasn’t quite sure which angle to take. I have decided that “Be Aware of Danger” is the best take.

The scenario starts with my daughter’s 2 year old female Aussie (from my Fancy) playing in the front yard of her house while my son in law was doing something in the yard. She was supervised, but not in bird’s eye view 100% of the time. Brave is about 15 pounds and sees no strangers, just like my Rosie.

A gentleman walking two pit bulls and another large breed approach the area on the sidewalk. As they come near, Brave decides to wiggle butt her way to the sidewalk to say hello. Bad choice.

As Brave moved toward the large dogs, the two pitties went into attack mode and pinned her. My son in law saw the attack, ran over and was able to get her away. Brave ran back into the yard and one of the pit bulls broke its “chain” and attacked her again. Once again my son in law, not thinking of his own danger, moved into the middle of the foray and was able to save Brave from uncertain death. All the while, the owner still had two large dogs straining at the leash to join the frenzy.

At this point, my daughter called my son who lives nearby and he came quickly to be sure the owner stayed around until Animal Control arrived. In the meantime, the owner of the dogs also called someone to pick up the dogs and they “quietly disappeared” from the area. Animal Control did a report as did the local police but because Brave was attacked the first time on the sidewalk, they made no ruling on fault which I find alarming.

Brave received care at the emergency clinic and remained for 2 days. She had a punctured lung, concussion and more than 30 staples to close bite wounds. She has recovered as has my son in law from the bites on his arms and hands. It should be noted all her bite wounds were to her underside so she was in a submissive position.

As an outsider in this situation, I do fault my adult children for allowing Brave to be in the front yard…maybe. That said, they live in a quiet neighborhood where folks talk across the fence and children play together and the dogs intermingle when the kids are playing. Brave is typically behind a fence in the backyard when outside except when they happen to be in the front with her. I doubt she will have that leisure again any time soon.

Because I operated a dog walking/pet sitting business for 7 years and sometimes was responsible to walk large dogs with high prey drive, I have been on the other side of this situation. I had to carry liability insurance for just this case and I was always on high alert in neighborhoods. I would NEVER have walked more than one strong dog at a time and I always carried a deterrent that I thought would distract a dog that might approach the one I was walking, either a horn or whistle or citronella spray. In some cases, the dog I was walking was muzzled just because…!!

You can read between the lines and determine all the “what ifs” and “should haves”. I do not fault the dogs. One is super friendly and has learned from attending doggy day care that big dogs are not to be feared. The others were in a pack and strong enough to take down anything in their way, including a man.

Luckily, this story had a happy ending for Brave. Sadly, the gentleman has been seen continuing to walk the three out of control dogs nearby. He apparently just didn’t get it that a frenzied dog can attack a child as easily as another dog.